TDF

By PATRICK LEE One of Broadway’s best-known leading ladies, Kerry Butler originated the roles of Penny in Hairspray, Audrey in the revival of Little Shop of Horrors, and Kira in Xanadu (for which she earned a Tony nomination).  Now she’s sporting acid-washed jeans in Rock of Ages, the hit musical that uses hair-metal hits from […]

By LINDA BUCHWALD Bill T. Jones is a busy man these days. On November 10, his dance company will perform Serenade/The Proposition, part of a trilogy about Abraham Lincoln, at the Joyce Theatre. On November 23, Fela!, a musical about the legendary Afrobeat musician Fela Kuti that Jones directed and choreographed, opens on Broadway at […]

By Julia Rosenfeld During a recent rehearsal for What Once We Felt, playwright Ann Marie Healy and director Ken Rus Schmoll had an idea for restructuring the end of their show. Healy took the suggestions from the rehearsal room, went home to her computer, and started working on new pages. And then something happened. “Ann […]

By Linda Buchwald Justin Kirk is an actor, so it stands to reason that portraying an actor on stage wouldn’t be a stretch. But his role in The Understudy, now playing at the Roundabout, is a serious departure from his actual life. A backstage satire from Theresa Rebeck, the play stages a put-in rehearsal for […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP It’s certainly a hooky idea: In Love Child, writer-performers Robert Stanton and Daniel Jenkins create an entire world using nothing but their bodies, six chairs, and some light cues. Their low-tech, high-energy style made the show a success last year when it played at Primary Stages, and it should make the current […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP When you’re writing a musical, the smallest changes can make all the difference. Just ask Adam Gwon. He was in previews for Ordinary Days, his new musical about New Yorkers with intersecting lives, when he discovered the power of tiny edits. A tweaked line here, a new song there, and he felt […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP Welcome to Building Character, TDF’s ongoing series about actors and how they create their roles. He played a Munchkin in Wicked and a hunchback in Young Frankenstein, so it’s only natural for Christopher Fitzgerald to play a leprechaun, right? Apparently so, since he’s starring as Og, a leprechaun hunting his stolen gold, […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP Take it from Charlayne Woodard: When your audience is your co-star, you have to be ready for anything. An actor and playwright, Woodard is best known for her series of autobiographical solo shows, including The Night Watcher, now playing at 59E59 in a production from Primary Stages. She never feels she’s performing […]

By MARK BLANKENSHIP They may be the most indelible images in Superior Donuts: Arthur, the ex-hippie who runs the titular doughnut shop, steps out of the action and delivers monologues about his family, his feelings, and his criminal past. While he speaks, Franco, his brash young employee, moves silently in the background, unaware his boss […]